IanR

I'd personally do everything possible to avoid an oil boiler. The heating system is a long term investment and the pressure to move away from all fossil fuel heating systems will be ratcheted up over the next few years, starting with building regs changes next year. Since you are embarking on a substantial renovation you have the ideal opportunity to convert the property to a low-temp heating system, just as the 2022 building regs will be forcing on all new builds. You already plan UFH, so you just need to include a suitably sized water cylinder and you've future proofed your house. With those items in place, an ASHP install will be a similar cost to an Oil boiler install. If you go the RHI / Clean Heat Grant route then yes, the MSC Install will cost more for the ASHP which will be offset by the grant, but a non-MSC ASHP install would be similar priced to the Oil Boiler install. If the Clean Heat Grant is anything like RHI, I'd go this route and go with the best COP you can afford. I was brought up in a farmhouse with an Oil Boiler and can attest to them being significantly more noisy than an ASHP. Ours always smelt as well, and it still does today. Which ever heating method, insulate as well as you can afford, especially underneath UFH, and improve air tightness where ever possible. These are simple things to do now, while you are renovating, but very disruptive in 10 years time when you need to replace a fossil fuel boiler and the Government has outlawed anything other than zero carbon heating systems.

While PIR performs well with a masonry skin, it's not going be as good in a light weight timber frame structure due to its short decrement delay. For a light weight structure you need to pick an insulation with a longer decrement delay. Insulating material with low thermal conductivity, high density and high specific heat capacity give a long decrement delay. Cellulose fibre and wood fibre are better matched to a timber frame structure. Edited to ask: How much glazing does your garden office have? can sunlight come directly in to the room? If it can how are you shading the room? Solar gain will heat the room up very quickly.

What's the purpose of the gates? If it's just for security of cars on the drive, how about rising bollards instead of gates? But get them with lights on, I hear delivery drivers tend not to notice them. If it's to enclose dogs, then you do need a gate with a bottom edge that is parallel to the lateral slope. Any gate hung from the higher side, that has a sloping lower edge (so is taller as you move away from the gate post), is going to exaggerate how much rise is needed in order for it to clear the fore-aft slope as it opens. The rise is created by leaning the hinge axis away from vertical, so that the lower hinge is further up the slope. In effect you set the hinge axis to be perpendicular to the slope rather than vertical. But with the gate vertical when closed, you have to offset the lower hinge away from the bottom of the gate. That offset, pushes the bottom of the gate away from the gatepost as it opens. The more rise you need the greater the offset and more peculiar they look when open. If you have to have a sloping lower edge to your gate, then I'd try to split the gates in such away that both gates need the same rise. It will mean a longer gate on the lower gate post, but to work out the ideal ratio you'll need to draw it out and know the slope angles. At least with the same rise either side the lower hinge offset will be the same and they will look more similar when open. If you are not powering the gates, I believe you will find that they are self-closing - if the rise is sufficient to overcome the friction. They'll need to be opened over 90 degrees, or have a latch to secure them, to stop them from closing on you. I guess a latch is safest as it stops the wind from just pushing it over-centre so they start to close.

My trenches were fully lined with a geotextile membrane, and I'm on clay.

Mines only got an air pump, what makes the noise on yours? Is it one of those fancy Klargesters with all the moving parts to justify the premium price?

My 10 person treatment plant (Ensign 10 from Marsh) was under £2K. Not noisy at all, I have to bend down towards the man hole to hear the pump and check it's still running.

Or discharge directly to a water course (ditch, river etc.) and do away with the drainage field altogether.

Have you met the General Binding Rules? https://www.gov.uk/guidance/general-binding-rules-small-sewage-discharge-to-the-ground It's more difficult with a Septic Tank. It comes down to whether the system and leach field is designed to British Standard BS 6297:2007. What's made you go with a septic tank rather than a small treatment plant? Edited to add: Do you know that water table will never rise up to the surface in the area of the leach field, even temporarily after heavy rain? You could have raw sewage coming up to the surface if it does.

M3.5 is readily available https://www.accu.co.uk/en/countersunk-socket-head-screws/5608-SSK-M3-5-8-A4

A little smaller than I thought. It may be an M3 x 8mm Counter sunk Socket (Internal Hex) (but it could be an M3.5 or M4) https://www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk/Bolts-Screws-Metric/Socket-Head-Countersunk-Screw-M3x8-A2-Stainless.html You have to buy 60 from the link above, you'll likely find smaller amounts on eBay. Can you measure the thread diameter, is it 3mm, 3.5mm or 4mm?

I'm guessing, but looks something like an M4 Screw Coutersunk, internal hex x 10mm long https://www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk/Bolts-Screws-Metric/Socket-Head-Countersunk-Screw-M4x10-A4-Stainless.html?google_shopping=qty_A4_ScrewBolt_SHCsk_M4_10=30&gclid=CjwKCAjwlrqHBhByEiwAnLmYUFcUif7f9vD_qtgrotIT9EjY8CuRJkTyWD4r2rRmuWhi9assNXDGzxoCIfoQAvD_BwE Can you check diameter and length dimensions to be sure?

+1 for an Architectural Technician, not an Architect. Rates are lower, and quite often at this stage you are just paying a premium for the Architect to instruct a Technician in their office. If you are trying to achieve better than Building Regs insulation, airtightness and cold bridging, then pick someone with that experience. (You may have to select an Architect for this one as there is less to choose from). If you are in any doubt on the foul drainage, get the SE or a specific drainage Engineer to design the foul and surface water drainage. Get talking to who ever is supplying your windows and doors to agree how they interface to your structure and floor. I wouldn't wait to do the MVHR, I'd get this designed while you are at the drawing stage of the structure, it could save a lot of large holes needing to be drilled. Nor would I wait to know where the large plumbing items are going, SE may need to know where the cylinder is and how large. UFH Manifolds and loops should also be known before you finalise your floor. There's a lot of work to do - £4K + SE is reasonable.

Not pulled your head out of the sand yet then Dave?

On a flat standing seam roof, you can fit directly off the seam using something like: https://s-5.com/products/solar-panels-on-metal-roof-pvkit-2-0/ You could still use the S-5 clamps on your curved roof, but you need to build up a frame from them to get the panel mountings flat. https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/3482954/Resources/Product Documents/Clamps/S-5-E/s-5-e-clamps-brochure.pdf You tend to go "landscape" with the PV modules on standing seam (when you mount directly), so they cross at least a couple of seams, This would avoid them lifting too far away from the roof and allowing the wind to get underneath. Alternatively, how about thin flexible PV modules, bonded directly to the Zinc? To show an example (but don't know the product or company): https://www.solarshop.co.uk/flexible-solar-panel#!/Miasole-120Wp-Peel-and-Stick-Flexible-Solar-Panel-5-year-warranty/p/202039294/category=19470179 I did try to source something similar for my own roof a couple of years ago, but I could only find them on Alibaba etc. Perhaps there are other options now. If you find a solution that isn't ridiculously expensive, then please post back, I may be interested myself.

I shortlisted Internorm and Norrsken in the end when researching our door and window package. I looked closely at the Rationel Aura Plus as they were good value. I particularly wanted tilt and turn on the opening sashes, and while they offered this, at the time they provided it by a sash within a sash, so the opening windows looked quite different to the fixed windows. Looking at their website now, they appear to have revised this. I also wanted natural wood on the inside and wasn't keen on having finger-jointing visible internally on the frames. (This isn't a consideration for a painted internal frame.) Internorm and Norrsken don't use finger-jointed sections on the visible part of the frames and sashes. I felt Internorm are a slightly better product than the Norrsken although the Norssken hardwood frames were especially good, but my budget didn't stretch to those. With the Internorm option being initially a little more expensive, I was going to go with Norssken, but then Internorm dropped their price, so I have Internorm windows and doors and are very happy with them. Internorm offer better terms to the Installers that supply higher volumes of their product, so it's worth shopping around. But be wary and check Reviews of the installers you look in to. ecoHaus offered by far the best price, and initially I had a good experience. The Install team were excellent and understood the requirements of a passivhaus install. Not all members here have had the same experience with ecoHaus, and my experience of their after-sales support stops me from recommending them, in fact I'd suggest they were avoided. We have the Studio HF310 product (accept in the utility where we have the UPVC equivalent) which cost around £500/m² in 2016.

When the roof is first installed they'll be no reason to "cut holes in panels", can only assume the poster is referring to retrofitting something to the roof in the future. For a standing seam roof: roof lights, soil vent pipes etc. would either have flashings created from the same material (if the material used is ductile enough ie. zinc, copper, aluminium) or may need a separate material to seal up to the penetrations. Standing seam is a good option for agricultural/industrial conversions. I've got 500m² of aluminium standing seam on mine and it looks correct in an agricultural environment, is suitably light weight for the roof structure of what was previously an agricultural building. Lots of material choices to suit the budget.

Traditional Barn or modern shed? Are you in an area where slate is typical on an agricultural (timber framed) barn? I'm more used to seeing clay tiles. How about standing seam metal roof? I'm not so keen on the visible fixings of metal profile on a conversion, plus the cut ends will corrode, unless you go for some more exotic that steel.

It does depend on temperatures, we we're power-floating from about 10:30 (while still pumping in) after a 07:00 start on a warm May pour.

It is, but not proactively. If you work within the General Binding Rules they don't even know you have a treatment plant, so you'd only come on their radar if a complaint is made due to a problem. That doesn't mean it should be taken likely though, there are serious fines and possible custodial sentences for breaking the rules, although obviously only for negligent or wilful acts.

Green Energy arranged the install of my 3 phase Smart Meter. G4S Installed it. £100 + VAT (single phase would have been £75 + VAT.) Not tried Smart Tariffs, but can't see why it wouldn't work.

Mines a stick built I-Joist Frame, designed and engineered by CTD. I didn't take out a structural warranty in the end, but had no issues getting several quotes.

Yep, needs to be commissioned before 31.03.2022 as RHI is stopping. No word on whether they'll be anything to replace it, but they plan to encourage more new builds to go with heat pumps from 2022, so there maybe incentives.

Hi and welcome, Here's my experience.

You've also got to account for an air change every hour (or perhaps every two hours), which should be at a lower temp than the air in the room, unless something is warming it up... Pretty sure you have an incidental heat input into the room.

Yep "²" was a mis-typed Alt Code and lack of glasses to notice, should have been "³". Approx 6m x 6m, with a sloping ceiling from 2.2m to 3.7m You'd have to take more into account than just air volume to calculate the length of time to heat the room up ie. heat losses, heat transfer to floor, ceiling walls and other heat inputs. I don't see any increase in temp over night. In Winter, if MVHR was not in heat recover mode I'd see a drop in temp. Even in heat-recover mode, when it's below freezing outside I'll see a 0.5°C drop. (both in the bedrooms and across the whole house) Yep on the odd occasion the overnight temps outside do not drop below 20°C, active cooling would be the only option to keep temps down. I do this very occasionally, but only from a chilled 200l buffer, and via the MVHR, not the UFH. I've not had to have the ASHP on overnight. Just to be clear I do use cooling via the UFH occasionally at other times, in the living areas, during the day and evening, but not overnight. (and not at all so far this year.)